Ginger Kids

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Ginger Kids" is episode 911 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It aired on November 9, 2005.

Plot

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In a class presentation, Cartman claims that "Gingers"—those with red hair, freckles and pale skin—are creepy and evil, and that their appearance comes from a lack of a soul. They suffer from "gingervitus." He says that this is evident by Judas being a ginger. He also claims that they cannot stand the sun, and that Kyle—who has red hair—is a "daywalker," a half-ginger (an apparent reference to the movie Blade). Kyle gets angry and gives a counterpoint report, and is further irked when Cartman's ideas lead other kids to discriminate gingers from the cafeteria—and so Kyle and the others get together in the night to dye Cartman's hair red, bleach his skin a lighter hue, and give him henna freckles, to make him "ginger," and he is then discriminated against, too.

However, Cartman—who cannot stand being a minority, or the idea that he could be inferior to another—becomes a bigoted leader of the "Ginger separatist movement," at first asking to be treated like everyone else.

Eventually, however, Cartman's movement becomes violent. He begins to preach that Gingers are, in fact, the "chosen race," and orders the eradication of all non-gingers from the Earth. Following Cartman's orders, the gingers abduct as many of South Park's children as they can, including Kyle (who is once again called a "daywalker") and Stan, then bring them to their meeting place to throw them all into a pit of lava. These scenes may or may not be a parody of either the Resident Evil 4 video game and/or the Village of the Damned movies.

Kyle is chosen as the first to die, but before the gingers throw him into the lava, he whispers to Cartman that they really made him look ginger, and Cartman freezes in terror. He then tells his followers that he has suddenly had an epiphany, and now realizes that everybody has to get along. As the other children are freed, Kyle mutters to Cartman that he is a manipulative asshole. Cartman (for once) agrees, but doesn't care as long as he isn't killed by the true gingers.

Trivia

Cartman's hate for Gingers might stem from Scott Tenorman. In the episode Scott Tenorman Must Die, he also gets pissed off at Scott's "ginger hair and freckles."

Cartman's speech is eerily similar to the Two Minutes Hate featured in George Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

This episode marks the first appearance—since Miss Crabtree was killed back in episode 813—of the new school bus driver, a dark skinned man who has no speaking part.

Cartman's chant of "Better red than dead!" is a take-off of the anti-Communist slogan "Better dead than Red!" although many countered McCarthyism in the 1950s with Cartman's exact rephrasing.

The term "daywalker" comes from the Blade series of films. It refers to a vampire who can walk in sunlight. (In classical vampire mythology, such as Bram Stoker's original "Dracula," all vampires could live in sunlight, they just don't have powers during that exposure. Sunlight killing vampires was a film creation, as it is less bloody than a stake and makes for a nice special effect.) Also, redheads were once thought to be vampires because red hair was a sign of vampirism

The last person in Cartman's anti-ginger slideshow was Carrot Top.

The only individual mentioned out of "all the great people throughout history who were Ginger" is Ron Howard.

The Ginger Kids protesting the production of "Annie" reflects the controversy that surrounded the casting of a non-Asian actor in the leading role of an Asian character in the Original Broadway production of the musical "Miss Saigon."

This is the 2nd time in the history of South Park that somebody questioned the "I learned something today" speech. One of the Gingers asked Cartman why he at first wanted to kill non-Gingers and then suddenly didn't. The first time this happened was in episode 310, Chinpokomon.

Oddly enough, Bertha (referred to on the site as "Red Haired Girl") was not mentioned for her red hair in either side of the argument(s).

The 1840 comic play Der Talisman by Johann Nestroy is about prejudice against redheads.

Cartman's rise is also similar to Hitler's rise to power in Germany.

"Ginger" is an anagram of "nigger".

External links

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